PARTY LINES: Frank talks housing, sequester in Taunton

Retired Congressman Barney Frank was among the dozen or so dignitaries who came to Taunton this past week to participate in the groundbreaking ceremony for the new HOPE VI grant-funded housing development that’s replacing Fairfax Gardens.

Retired Congressman Barney Frank was among the dozen or so dignitaries who came to Taunton this past week to participate in the groundbreaking ceremony for the new HOPE VI grant-funded housing development that’s replacing Fairfax Gardens.

Frank, who’s been out of office since January, said that under sequestration, HUD would not have had the level of funding to make the HOPE VI project possible.

“I think this project is as big a per capita grant as there’s been in America,” Frank said.

Through a public-private partnership and with the support of a $22 million HOPE VI grant from HUD, the Taunton Housing Authority and nearly a dozen partners are working to replace the old Fairfax Garden housing project with mixed-income units on two sites.

The $71 million project’s plans call for 88 new energy efficient townhouse-style units where the former Fairfax Gardens site stood, and 72 affordable rental units on the Parcel 6A brownfield site off Mason Street.

Funding is being provided by the Taunton Housing Authority, the city, HUD, the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, MassDevelopment, RBC Capital Markets, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch.

During his remarks at the groundbreaking, Frank also lauded the work of the THA and criticized proposals to do away with housing authorities.

“The notion that we should abolish housing authorities across the state would be a grave error,” he said.

Kennedy pitches minimum wage hike.

Congressman Joe Kennedy III, who succeeded Barney Frank as the 4th District’s representative, announced that he is co-sponsoring a bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 over three years.

The Massachusetts Democrat’s legislation would also raise the tipped minimum wage and tie future annual increases to the rate of inflation.

The minimum wage is currently set at $7.25 per hour, putting the yearly earned income for a minimum wage worker at approximately $15,000, which is $3,000 dollars below the poverty line for a family of three.

“The fact that this country continues to promote a minimum wage that leaves a full-time worker unable to keep his family above the poverty line is unacceptable,” Kennedy said in a statement. “This country was built on the promise that hard work pays off; that economic mobility isn’t determined by where you’re born or what you start with but by the effort you’re willing to put in to get ahead. Raising the minimum wage will be a sorely overdue lift to working families in the 4th District and an engine for economic growth across the country.”